[Docket: [undecipherable] Mc Henry — / 21 Oct / 1798 / Mount Vann[on] / to be destroyd / 3—] [Private & Confidential] My dear Sir, (135) Enclosed is a copy of the President's letter to me, which I request may be, with this letter, burnt as soon as they are read, & no more said respecting the contents than might be proper for him to hear repeated again, — Otherwise a knowledge that the contents of my letters to, and from him, are in possession of others, may induce him to believe, in good earnest, that intrigues are carrying on, in which I am an actor — than which, nothing is more foreign from my heart. — I return the Press copies which were enclosed to me. — But in future, whenever you require my opinion on any points, let it be stated in your letter, or on a paper to remain in my possession, without a—cts, & proceedings, will appear incomplete & mysterious. — Do you mean to furnish me with a copy of the letter you wrote to the President for a peace, & of his Instructions to you, or not? — Long, Long since I informed you that it would be extremely useful to me if (if I was to have any hand in selecting the Officers for the four Regiments & Cavalry, proposed to be raised in the Southern Division of the Union) to be furnished with a list of the Captains & Subaltterns therein, who served in the Revolutionary army; but none has ever been sent. — This, with the dates of their Commissions might be a means of coming at many valuable Officers, and preventing many disputes hereafter. — Has M^r Wolcott received any answer to his letter to the President? — and to what effect. — You know that I am always Your sincere friend and Pd Affect.^te H.ble Serv.^t P.S. It is someth[ing] since Nelly Curtis G Washington enclosed me a Post[undecipherable] furnished by me to discharge Mount Vernon your advance for the Colony — 21 Oct^r 1798 Has it ever been received? — James McHenry Esq^r